Neither here nor there

Statesman News Service

MALDA April 17: Malda administration has finally decided to restore people living on a sand head called Khatiakhana on the Ganges their voting rights. A fresh survey will be conducted so that the residents can cast their votes for the by-poll to be conducted due to ABA Ghani Khan Choudhury’s death, an official said today. Authorities said there were hundreds who did not have the right to vote during the ongoing Assembly polls thanks to technical snags. “This area is in our ‘active consideration’, to accept the plea to include names of these people in the electoral rolls,” Mr Debanjan Roy, block development officer, said. He said the block land and land revenue department conducted a preliminary survey to find its land records and it has been established that the char land is under the jurisdiction of Malda district. “We must have a fresh survey soon,” the BDO, Kaliachak II, said. These people were forced to take refuge on another char land, located on the right bank of the Ganges a few years back, when massive erosion on the left bank destroyed their homes. The 250 displaced families returned to Khatiakhana, in the the Hamidpur gram panchayat area in Kaliachak II block, when the land resurfaced. People continue to come over to Khatiakhana apprehending erosion on the right bank. According to the irrigation department, the width of the Ganges is usually 2.5 km, but in this zone it is nearly 8 to 8.5 km. Dozens of sand heads have come up here.Villagers living in Khatiakhana have ration cards issued by the Bengal government earlier as Malda residents and they would collect material from ration dealers on the left bank of the Ganges. They also have Epics issued by the Jharkhand government and had cast their votes in the last Parliamentary election. But in the last Assembly election in Jharkhand, the government did not allow them to vote. In the meantime, the West Bengal government had deleted their names from the voters’ list. Right now, these people have ration cards but no voting rights (in either state). A few weeks back, locals informed the Election Commission of their plight. “They will have to show documents that their names have been deleted from electoral rolls in Jharkhand. We will include their names if they can do so,” said Mr BP Barat, the additional district magistrate. #